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Engineering Grad Honored

English recognized as American Conference Woman of the Year selection

Published Oct 06, 2025 by
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IRVING, Texas — East Carolina soccer and engineering alumna Maeve English has been chosen as one of the American Conference’s two nominees for the NCAA’s prestigious Woman of the Year award.

English, who graduated in May with a Bachelor of Science in engineering, is just the second ECU athlete ever to advance beyond institutional nomination after basketball’s Cecilia Shinn who was the state winner in 2000.

In addition to her athletic and academic accomplishments, the Greenville native is set apart by her work off the playing field and outside of the classroom. In her extracurricular endeavors, English averaged nearly 150 hours per year working in the community with such organizations as the Pitt-Greenville Soccer Association, Society of Women Engineers student organization, Pitt County Schools, the Special Olympics of Eastern North Carolina and the Pitt County Animal Shelter all while serving on the ECU Student Athlete Advisory Committee, for which she served as SAAC president from the fall of 2023 to the spring of 2025. In this work, she also represented the Pirates as a member of the American Conference Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

Honors

  • Dean’s list nine times
  • 150 community service hours annually
  • Five-time All-Academic honoree
  • ECU Student Athlete Advisory Committee president
  • ECU Most Outstanding Female Scholar Athlete
  • ECU Ms. Pirate Award

 

As an engineering student, English made the dean’s list nine times. She was a five-time American Conference All-Academic honoree, and in 2024 she was named ECU’s Most Outstanding Female Scholar Athlete. In 2023, she earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-District recognition.

That same year, English earned the East Carolina Ms. Pirate Award, given annually to an outstanding female student-athlete, specifically highlighting leadership, service to the community and athletic performance. As a freshman in 2021, she was awarded the Kristi Overton Scholar-Athlete Award, an endowment given to a freshman student-athlete for outstanding athletic performance in their rookie season, academic excellence and involvement in community service.

On the pitch, the goalkeeper finished her career as one of the most decorated athletes in East Carolina history. She set program records for goalkeeper minutes, starts and appearances and tied the program record for career shutouts. With her 30 career shutouts, she is also second in American Conference history while also holding the league record for career saves. She is the 25th goalkeeper in NCAA history to play 8,000 career minutes.
Serving as a three-time team captain, English was awarded for her exploits wearing her iconic number 31. She earned American All-Conference honors three times in addition to an All-Rookie nod during her debut campaign. She ended her career with her highest athletic honor as the American Conference Tournament Most Outstanding Defensive Player while leading the Pirates to their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

Since graduating, English has signed her first professional contract with REA FC in Crete, Greece, where she recently earned her first career start and simultaneously her first career professional clean sheet.

The NCAA Woman of the Year program was established in 1991 and honors the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three divisions.